Fox Run Golf Club, Ludlow, VT

Let me start off by saying that this course is beautiful and in great shape. I was having a great round enjoying some time with my little brother all the way until hole 18. This is where, out of almost 1000 rounds of golf, I had the worst experience I’ve ever had.

I booked a tee time a few days in advance. I explained to the person on the phone that my brother works on a construction site right in Ludlow and gets out at 2:30 (last available tee time of the day, which was ours), so we’d end up teeing off closer to 2:45. Word for word response was “No problem, as long as the cart is in by 6:30.”

Fast forward to yesterday: my brother arrives at 2:33. I had arrived earlier and paid for our rounds and some balls in the pro shop. We grabbed a couple of beverages in the restaurant and were at the first tee at 2:40. There wasn’t anyone in front of us until hole 5, but nonetheless, we got through the first 9 holes in a little over an hour and a half. It’s worth noting here that I play a ton of golf and am generally pretty fast. My brother doesn’t and wants to learn, and because there was nobody behind us and only a few groups in front, I took some time to give him a few pointers. Regardless, we were way ahead of pace of play with plenty of time to beat the 6:30 deadline.

We stopped at the restaurant quickly and hit the back 9. Everything was fine until hole 18. It was 6:25 and was getting rather dark, so we were hustling to not keep the cart guy waiting. As we were driving towards the green, we saw a ranger cart barreling straight for us. Mark Senecal, the head pro, drives up to us like he’s a VT State Trooper in a high speed chase, and yells angrily “What the f@!k are you guys doing?” I check the time and it wasn’t 6:30 yet, so I was thoroughly confused. Mark proceeds to berate us very aggressively, lecturing us about the dark and cursing at us like we are pieces of crap. At this point, I fired back at him because he was talking so aggressively that I thought there was going to be a physical altercation. He told us to finish the hole and “get back to the clubhouse” like he’s my dad or something. I decided to just pick my ball up and not finish. The cart guy was fine when we got there, and we just left instead of enjoying dinner at the restaurant.

Ownership (Troy Caruso): this has to be troubling to you as a business owner. This guy has absolutely no business in a customer-facing role in any capacity. He clearly lacks management competence and can’t communicate effectively with his staff. There were grounds crew members that couldn’t tell us where the first and ten tee boxes were, and staff is telling people 6:30 for cart return, but he’s out berating customers earlier than 6:30. He’s playing with fire by being an aggressive jerk - somebody with less patience and emotional intelligence would have planted him into the ground for acting the way he was. For $250 + the cost of beverages/snacks, this is hardly the experience I expect. I play at courses all over the country and have never run into a person like that, especially one in a leadership capacity like this jerk off. It’s a shame, because your facility is amazing. Not only will I never play there again, I intend to leave similar reviews wherever I can, and I will go out of my way to make sure to tell everyone possible to avoid it at all costs.